Giotto frescoes could suffer "irreversible damage" from development plans

A set of rare Italian Renaissance frescoes may be under threat from developers
in a northern Italian city, reports Alasdair Palmer

A woman looks at the Giotto frescoes at the Scrovegni chapel, in Padua, northern Italy Photo: AP

2:52PM BST 19 May 2012

They are regarded as a supreme masterpiece of medieval Western art and are admired by thousands of visitors to the city of Padua each year.

But frescoes by the Italian Renaissance painter, Giotto di Bondone, in the 14th century Scrovegni Chapel, are now said to be threatened by a symbol of the modern world: a futuristic 30-storey tower of flats, shops and offices.

Three leading academics have launched a public petition which has attracted thousands of signatures from all over Italy in an attempt to halt the construction of the two-pronged tower, designed by a Serbian-born archutect, Boris Podrecca, who is regarded as a pioneer of post-modernism. It is part of a €160 million development just across the river from the chapel.

Critics, who are backed by local environmental groups, warn that digging the tower's foundations will affect drainage across the area and could cause subsidence of the chapel walls, on which the frescoes are painted. At the same time, say opponents of the plan, humidity may be raised - posing a particular threat to the delicate surface of the brilliantly-coloured images.

"The building project is the height of irresponsibility," said Chiara Frugoni, a former professor of medieval history at the University of Rome who has written extensively on the Scrovegni Chapel. "The evidence is that it could cause permanent, irreversible damage to Giotto's extraordinary paintings."

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Giotto's depiction of rounded figures in three-dimensional space was a milestone in art, and of incalculable influence. He was commissioned to decorate the chapel by Enrico Scrovegni, the banker who built it - at a time when many believed bankers were guilty of the mortal sin of usury and thus destined for eternal punishment.

On the end wall of the chapel, Giotto painted a realistic depiction of the Last Judgment, with sinners being dragged down into hell. Most of the other scenes, across the walls and ceiling, are incidents from the life of Jesus.

But critics of the tower fear that Giotto's frescos, which have survived for more than 700 years since they were completed in 1305, may soon be damaged beyond repair.

Padua's city council previously postponed a plan to build a new auditorium 150 yards from the chapel because an expert survey concluded that it posed a risk to the building. Prof Frugoni said: "We know from that survey that the sub-soil is extremely fragile, so that digging the foundations for the skyscraper will affect the drainage and may cause subsidence to the walls of the chapel. Both could ruin Giotto's paintings. How could anyone contemplate taking that sort of risk?"

Opponents say that the tower - at 330 feet high, on a much bigger scale than the shelved auditorium - will pose much greater risks to the 27-foot tall chapel and the frescoes within it.

"Constructing the skyscrapers will affect the water levels in the subsoil in the area around the chapel," said Prof Frugoni. "There is a real possibility that the result will be that water will flood around it.

"Everyone with any knowledge of frescoes is aware that excessive damp can cause them to crumble, or to peel off the wall to which they are attached."

The chapel already restricts access by visitors, with no more than 50 allowed within it at any one time, none for more than 20 minutes, in order to reduce damage by condensation from their breath.

Its crypt is already partly waterlogged with mud on the floor, which has caused it to be closed indefinitely, even though the ceiling is also painted with stars by Giotto.

But the council has approved the private development, by a consortium of companies, which it says will speed up Padua's economic growth. Ivo Rossi, deputy mayor has declared that "nothing will happen" to the chapel as a result of the new building.

A Padua city councillor, Andrea Colasio said there was no risk to the frescoes. "The council has done all that it could have to guarantee the protection of the chapel," he said. "We don't need a team of international experts to 'save' Giotto, the frescoes are already in the very best condition."

The council believes the development - on land currently used for bus parking - will provide jobs for Padua's citizens and tax revenues for the authorities. "But what," asked Prof Frugoni, "if the price is the destruction of Giotto's frescoes? That would not only be a disaster for Padua. It would be a disaster for the world."